News

IT for government and public sector

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Government deaf to loud calls for statutory public inquiry into Post Office scandal

  MPs are demanding the government holds a full statutory public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Scotland seeks views on digital government

  Scottish government consults on how to build a digital Scotland, ahead of plans to deliver a new digital strategy for the country

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Scotland digital identity prototype pilot successful

  Digital Identity Scotland’s 10-week test of its digital identity prototype finds that users understand the concept of two-factor authentication and using the same credentials across services

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Facebook critics launch ‘Real Facebook Oversight Board’

  Organisation formed as an ‘emergency response’ to address the ‘immediate risk’ posed by Facebook’s role in the US election

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  HMRC warns locked-down freshers of ‘wave’ of tax scams

  New university intake may be being targeted by cyber criminals amid Covid-19 confusion

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Regulator wants fintechs to address pandemic financial challenges

  UK financial services regulator is supporting fintechs in addressing some of the challenges consumers and small businesses face amid the current pandemic

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  FBI seized ‘legally privileged’ material from Ecuador Embassy, claims Julian Assange’s lawyer

  The US struck a secret deal with Ecuador to seize WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s property from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London days before his arrest. The haul included legally privileged documents, says his solicitor

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Technical glitch causes nearly 16,000 Covid-19 cases to go unreported

  According to Public Health England, a technical glitch led to 15,841 positive results between 25 September and 2 October not being included in reported coronavirus cases

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  WikiLeaks led the way for newsrooms to use encryption to protect sources, says Italian journalist

  Stefania Maurizi says in written evidence that Julian Assange pioneered the use of encryption by journalists to protect sources. Her work shows that the US put pressure on Italy to stop the extradition and prosecution of CIA officers responsible for...

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Honesty is the best policy: Forging a security culture in the NHS

  Clinician and technologist Sam Shah helped set up NHSX in 2019. Now he’s helping advance digital transformation in healthcare from the outside, and a big part of that is addressing security in the sector

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Future UK-EU data sharing put at risk by Brexit legislation

  When the Brexit transition period ends, UK ministers will have the power to forge new data-sharing arrangements that risk undermining the viability of future data transfers with the European Union

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  How CH Robinson is embracing IoT to transform supply chains in the pandemic

  Logistics giant has partnered with Microsoft to sophisticate its approach to digitisation and better serve its clients with more visibility and crucial insights for decision-making

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Justice for subpostmasters as wrongful criminal convictions are set to be quashed

  The Post Office has chosen not to contest 44 out of 47 appeals, meaning most are likely to have their names cleared, but others still face a Court of Appeal battle for justice

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Judge to give verdict on Julian Assange’s extradition after Christmas

  Judge Vanessa Baraitser said today that she would make a ruling in early January on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the US

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  WikiLeaks revelations ‘shed light of truth’ on war on terror, court hears

  WikiLeaks disclosures led to ‘revelations of extraordinary journalistic importance’ about detention in Guantanamo Bay and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Government on the hunt for GDS CEO

  Whitehall is recruiting for a Government Digital Service CEO who will report to the government chief digital officer, offering £168,000 a year for the role

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Most people are happy to see their GP virtually, survey shows

  Research from healthtech company Visionable finds there has been a significant rise in GP video consultations, and that attitudes to communication technology have changed during the pandemic

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Trust in government technology is key to adoption

  Panellists at GovTech Summit 2020 speak about the need to build trust in government digital services, as the pandemic has created room for increased use of technology in the public sector

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Blackbaud admits hackers stole banking details, passwords

  Software firm paid off a ransomware gang, believed its hackers when they said they had destroyed the data, and has now discovered the cyber criminals accessed even more sensitive information than it thought

• September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20

  ‘American friends’ spied on Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, court hears

  Two former employees of UC Global, which provides security services to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim the company shared surveillance footage with the US of the WikiLeaks founder meeting with lawyers and other visitors

• September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20

  Norway leaves door open to Huawei

  Government gives telecoms companies responsibility to choose their equipment suppliers, which could include Huawei

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Julian Assange would be held with convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in supermax prison, court hears

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be held alongside convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in a supermax federal prison in Colorado, isolated from other prisoners, if he is extradited to the US, Old Bailey told

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Coronavirus has changed perception of healthtech, say ministers

  German health minister Jens Spahn and UK health secretary Matt Hancock say Covid-19 has accelerated healthcare technology adoption across Europe and changed attitudes towards tech in the healthcare system

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Subpostmasters still in the dark about live Horizon errors

  Subpostmasters still not being told about all the known errors in the controversial Post Office branch accounting and retail system that they use

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Universal Credit algorithm fails people in need, says Human Rights Watch

  The human rights charity says the government’s flagship benefits system is “flawed” and that the means-testing algorithm used causes “irrational fluctuations and reductions in how much benefit” claimants receive each month

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Julian Assange would be held in ‘solitary confinement’ in US jail

  WikiLeaks founder would be held in a cell the size of a parking space for 22 or 23 hours a day without contact with other inmates before trial

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  UK and US marked down on responsible AI

  The UK and US have been rated as leaders in government use of artificial intelligence, but the Nordics and Baltics attained the highest scores for responsible AI

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Government updates data ethics framework

  The new data ethics framework was created to better reflect how projects are run in practice after finding there was “little awareness” of the previous framework across the public sector

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Police Scotland to set up new cyber crime centre

  National Centre of Excellence will employ specially trained officers to tackle a vertiginous rise in cyber crime

• September 25, 2020 25 Sep'20

  Forensic expert questions US claims that Julian Assange conspired to crack military password

  Forensic computer expert Patrick Eller told the Old Bailey that US allegations that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attempted to decrypt a password to help former soldier Chelsea Manning leak sensitive government documents anonymously do not fit ...

• September 25, 2020 25 Sep'20

  Government on the hunt for telexistence tech

  Defence and Security Accelerator wants several technology innovations that can help people operate in dangerous environments without being physically present – with £500,000 funding available

• September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20

  Government blasted over ‘reckless’ contact-tracing security

  The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch accuse the government of endangering public health with a reckless attitude to contact-tracing data security

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has Asperger syndrome and depression, court hears

  Julian Assange is on the autistic spectrum and has a history of depression that would put him at risk of suicide if he is extradited to a US prison, psychiatrists tell the court

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  Over half of firms intend to continue US data transfers despite Schrems II

  Survey shows many organisations do not intend to significantly change their data-sharing practices, at least until there is more guidance from regulators or governments

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  MoD Defence Digital adds Oracle Cloud to MODCloud list of assured providers

  Database giant Oracle has been added to the list of providers the Ministry of Defence has endorsed for use by the UK defence community

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  US agencies warn of election disinformation and cyber attacks

  Federal agencies are warning of heightened disinformation as the crucial 2020 presidential election nears

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  UK government to trial new single sign-on system for Gov.uk

  GDS introduces Gov.uk Accounts in its latest attempt to unify the growing number of login systems used across the government web domain

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  Wielding influence: The challenges CIOs face under Covid-19

  IT decision-makers are more necessary than ever, but their skills are being put to the test as the implications of the pandemic and the role of technology in the business evolves, according to the 2020 global CIO survey by Harvey Nash and KPMG

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  GDS reviewing Cloud First policy post-Schrems II

  Review seeks to determine the future of government engagement with cloud hosting services as they relate to cross-border data flows

• September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks cables showed US interfered in German torture investigation

  Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA in a case of mistaken identity, told a court that disclosures by WikiLeaks showed that the US had intervened in a German judicial investigation into his treatment

• September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20

  NHS tech bosses outline cost of coronavirus app development

  The government is forecasting spend to exceed £35m in the controversial contact-tracing app, a Public Accounts Committee on digital transformation in the NHS has heard

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Outgoing NCSC CEO: Ransomware threat kept us up at night

  Former NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin sheds some light on some of the biggest cyber threats currently facing the UK

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Congressman offered Julian Assange a ‘win-win’ deal that would help President Trump

  Details have emerged of US congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s offer of a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a ‘win-win deal that would benefit US President Donald Trump

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Open Data Institute explores diverse range of data governance structures

  Unlocking the economic and social potential of data will require a diverse range of governance structures to meet the needs of different contexts, use cases and stakeholders

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Government IT leaders on how Covid crisis will shape future delivery

  At a TechUK Building the Smarter State event, government IT leaders shared their experience of the coronavirus crisis, and their thinking about how future service delivery will aim to be more joined-up for citizens

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks partners developed software to redact 400,000 Iraq War Logs

  Psychologist and co-founder of NGO the Iraq Body Count told a court that Julian Assange insisted on stringent redaction of hundreds of thousands of documents which revealed civilian deaths in the Iraq war

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  DWP accelerates digital transformation amid Covid-19 crisis

  The Department for Work and Pensions has released an update of the efforts made in the past six months across key digital services, with progress accelerating due to the pandemic

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Loan charge under review: Government’s tax policy set to be challenged under EU law

  A fresh attempt to judicially review the government’s controversial disguised remuneration policy is being launched, and its backers have already secured 85% of the £180,000 needed to test whether the loan charge breaches EU law

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Assange revelations among most important in US history, says Daniel Ellsberg

  Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked highly classified documents that changed the course of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, says WikiLeaks exposed a serious pattern of US war crimes

• September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20

  NCSC steps up ransomware support for schools and universities

  New alert and updated guidance comes after several academic institutions were targeted in ransomware attacks